Grace

What is grace?
Grace is a wholly generous act of God. It is the foundation of our relationship with God. It's immeasurable and sufficient for everything we suffer (2 Cor. 12:9). It is to vast, to amazing. What little we do know about grace is just a shadow; obscured by smoke and darkness.

What does grace do?
It saves. If we are saved by grace it is no longer by anything we do. It's no longer by grace if it is through what we do. If we we are justified by the law we are fallen from grace (Romans 11:6 & Eph. 2:8-9). We are saved by God's grace.

It allows us to carry on. It allows us to do everything. We accomplish all things through the grace of God.

What does grace change?
Grace changes us, it humbles us. The circumstances that God allows us to go through (insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties, etc.) are what He uses to make that change in us. He uses those things to transform our minds.

Grace is essential for Christian living.
Christians fail so often because they don't live with grace. Nothing is accomplished through us. Our strength, intelligence, wisdom, etc. don't mean anything because everything is accomplished through grace.

Why don't people practice the grace of God?
Because many times we want to escape our problems so much, that we often avoid what it takes to get the grace of God. "Problems can make us bitter or better." They don't exist to drive us away from God. They exist to bring us closer, so that we might learn just how much God cares for us. Sometimes, we are so caught up with patting each other on the back that we take the glory away from God and what He has accomplished with His grace. By claiming victory in ourselves we are robbing the God of heaven of His glory.

How does God teach us about grace?
2 Cor. 12:7-10
Life for the Christian doesn't always go smoothly. God does things we don't like because we need them. He does this so that we might know that we need His grace. All the "bad" things that happen occur to drive us to God's grace. God uses the circumstances of our lives to bring us to certain conclusions. He has planned our lives, and uses even Satan to bring us to a knowledge of our weaknesses to change the way we think, the way we respond. He uses those things to bring us to a point where we are beyond our abilities, our strength, our knowledge, our endurance. He uses them to bring us to a point where we are beyond ourselves. God will make us perfect in our weakness.

The goal is not to realize how great we are, but how deprived we are and how great is our God. A person realizes the grace of god when he recognizes his infirmities. The problems in our lives bring us to a point of submission. They give us a reality of how great God is.

Don't be satisfied with mediocrity, be all you can be through the grace of God giving Him the glory. 2 Cor. 4: 8-15